New Delhi: After Maharashtra, the Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday has slashed petrol and diesel prices by 40 paise and 22 paise respectively per litre.
The decision was taken by Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, at a high-level meeting with commercial tax officers, to review the hike in petrol prices.
The sales tax has been slashed from 34 per cent to 33 per cent on petrol and 23 per cent to 22.25 per cent on diesel, which amounts to reduction of 40 paise for petrol and 22 paise for diesel.
Andhra government's decision makes it quite clear that more Congress states will follow. This will also put pressure on the non-Congress states to do the same.
With the reduction in prices due to a cut in sales and commercial taxes, consumers would benefit with the prices being lesser in the state, compared to neighbouring Maharashtra, an official release said.
Following suit, people in Delhi could also hope for some relief from the recent fuel price hike, with the Delhi government likely to slash sales tax on petrol and diesel.
"The government will consider on Tuesday, ways to reduce the burden of the hike in petrol and diesel rates," Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said.
"We will consider ways to reduce the burden of the fuel price hike on Delhiites," she said.
A decision on how to bring down the rates will be taken at a high-level meeting on Tuesday chaired by Dikshit, which will also be attended by Finance Minister A K Walia.
Sources said the government is likely to slash the sales tax on petrol and diesel in the capital to make a reduction in fuel prices possible.
The petrol prices in Delhi had increased from Rs 43.51 per litre to Rs 47.51, and diesel rates had gone up from Rs 30.47 per litre to Rs 32.47 per litre, a hike of Rs four and Rs two per litre respectively.
On Friday, Maharashtra government said that it will not charge the incremental sales tax on the new prices of fuel, which means the cost of petrol comes down by a rupee and of diesel by 60 paisa.
But people in Maharashtra might have to wait a bit before the cut in fuel prices comes into effect.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh says, “We had promised the Centre that if they increase the prices of fuel then we would think about removing the sales tax on the amount increased."
With Agency inputs
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